Baltimore Beacon

The beacon is a whitewashed stone cone about fifteen metres high standing on the cliff at the entrance to Baltimore harbour, built in 1848 as a daymark for shipping - it carries no light, and its function is simply to be visible. Local usage calls it Lot's Wife, after the pillar of salt. The walk out from the village takes fifteen or twenty minutes and ends on open clifftop with a view over Roaringwater Bay, Sherkin Island, Cape Clear and, on clear days, the Fastnet Rock. The village below has a harder history: in June 1631 corsairs from the Barbary coast raided Baltimore at night and carried off around a hundred and seven people, mostly English settlers, into slavery in North Africa; almost none returned. The clifftop around the beacon is unfenced and the drop is sheer.

History

The beacon was built in 1848, after an older warning beacon at the harbour entrance had fallen into ruin. It is about 15 metres high and 4.6 metres across at the base, on a cliff 49 metres high, built of rubble stone in a tapering cone with a red metal sphere on top (Wikipedia, Baltimore Beacon).

Highlights

• The white cone - about fifteen metres, an unlit daymark for shipping.
• The bay view - Sherkin, Cape Clear and the Fastnet beyond.
• The clifftop - open, unfenced ground above a sheer drop.
• The harbour below - the village and the 1631 raid site.

When to go

April to October. Sunset from the beacon is the local recommendation. It is fully exposed - unpleasant and genuinely risky near the edge in strong wind.

Before you go

Unfenced clifftop with a sheer drop, and people take photographs far too close to it. Fifteen to twenty minutes' walk each way from limited parking. No facilities at the beacon.

Nearby

Baltimore village and the Sherkin and Cape Clear ferries are below; Lough Hyne is inland.

Key facts